Basta

A group of sailors who have formed a humanitarian group called Basta! will meet Sunday to discuss plans for another flotilla of aid to Cuba. Organizers hope to have 50 boats take 200 tons of food, medicine and vitamins to Havana in April. Two similar trips were made in the past year. The word basta in English means enough. In Havana, the merchandise will be turned over to the Cuban Red Cross and Ecumenical Council of Churches for distributionto hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes.

A flotilla loaded with 40 tons of powdered milk, vegetable oil and candy arrived in Cuba on Saturday afternoon, the second such trip this year. Seventeen boats journeyed across the Straits of Florida to deliver the goods, said John Young, director of Basta! (Spanish for "enough"). One boat had to be abandoned en route because of engine failure. The goods - six times more than what was delivered during the first voyage in April - were to be distributed at a hospital, a home for the aged and a home for the physically and mentally impaired, he said.

Basta!, the Key West-based humanitarian aid group, had planned to set sail for Havana again this month, but the trip has been rejected by the Cuban government, organizers said on Friday. John Young, president of the group, said Cuban authorities earlier this week turned down any upcoming trips. In a Havana meeting, Cuban authorities said the trips were being used by the U.S. government to manipulate public opinion about the embargo toward Cuba, Young said. "Everything was in the works," he said.

MIAMI -- The Roman Catholic Church has ordered its South Florida priests to stay away from a planned humanitarian flotilla from Key West to Cuba this month. The mandate came after the Archdiocese of Miami learned Rev. Gerald McGrath of St. Mary`s Star of the Sea parish in Key West planned to go to Cuba with Basta!, a group organizing the mercy mission. Church officials in Miami confirmed that they ordered McGrath to distance himself from the controversial project in which boatloads of food and medicine are to be ferried to the island.

MIAMI -- The humanitarian flotilla planned to leave Key West for Cuba in 10 days has received the blessing of the U.S. government. Approval for the controversial mission, relayed in a letter from the Treasury Department late Tuesday, is not final. But it allows the group Basta! to speed up preparations for its mission of mercy, the first of its kind from South Florida. "All we have to do now is the logistic work, collecting the medicine and food and deciding who is going," said an excited John J. Young, who is organizing Basta!

HAVANA, Cuba -- If all goes as planned, the vitamins and other supplies ferried here from Key West will help people like 8-year-old Alien Martinez. For the last week, Alien has been complaining of severe headaches and blurred vision. "The other day my mother gave me a book to read and I couldn`t see the words," Alien said. Concerned about the symptoms, Alien`s father, Elier, took his son to Juan Manuel Marquez Pediatric Hospital in Marianno on Monday for a checkup. The hospital, on the outskirts of Havana, is among three scheduled to receive donations from Basta!

It's not every day that you find a restaurant that serves both Italian and Argentinian fare.Pasta E Basta, which from outward appearances seems little more than a hole in the wall next to a downscale sports bar on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, is home to what my companion proclaims "one of the best $13 steaks I've ever had." Steak is the highlight of the 13-table eatery, which is divided into an unpretentious dining area and a smaller bar that serves, among other libations, Argentinian wine and beer.

It's not every day that you find a restaurant that serves both Italian and Argentinian fare.Pasta E Basta, which from outward appearances seems little more than a hole in the wall next to a downscale sports bar on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, is home to what my companion proclaims "one of the best $13 steaks I've ever had." Steak is the highlight of the 13-table eatery, which is divided into an unpretentious dining area and a smaller bar that serves, among other libations, Argentinian wine and beer.

Basta!, the Key West-based humanitarian aid group, had planned to set sail for Havana again this month, but the trip has been rejected by the Cuban government, organizers said on Friday. John Young, president of the group, said Cuban authorities earlier this week turned down any upcoming trips. In a Havana meeting, Cuban authorities said the trips were being used by the U.S. government to manipulate public opinion about the embargo toward Cuba, Young said. "Everything was in the works," he said.

A group of sailors who have formed a humanitarian group called Basta! will meet Sunday to discuss plans for another flotilla of aid to Cuba. Organizers hope to have 50 boats take 200 tons of food, medicine and vitamins to Havana in April. Two similar trips were made in the past year. The word basta in English means enough. In Havana, the merchandise will be turned over to the Cuban Red Cross and Ecumenical Council of Churches for distributionto hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes.

A flotilla loaded with 40 tons of powdered milk, vegetable oil and candy arrived in Cuba on Saturday afternoon, the second such trip this year. Seventeen boats journeyed across the Straits of Florida to deliver the goods, said John Young, director of Basta! (Spanish for "enough"). One boat had to be abandoned en route because of engine failure. The goods - six times more than what was delivered during the first voyage in April - were to be distributed at a hospital, a home for the aged and a home for the physically and mentally impaired, he said.

HAVANA, Cuba -- If all goes as planned, the vitamins and other supplies ferried here from Key West will help people like 8-year-old Alien Martinez. For the last week, Alien has been complaining of severe headaches and blurred vision. "The other day my mother gave me a book to read and I couldn`t see the words," Alien said. Concerned about the symptoms, Alien`s father, Elier, took his son to Juan Manuel Marquez Pediatric Hospital in Marianno on Monday for a checkup. The hospital, on the outskirts of Havana, is among three scheduled to receive donations from Basta!